Thread: Old Red gum fence posts

Originally Posted by Carry Pine

Steve,

Also remeber it kicks. Know a guy who bolted a long mantle piece into his wall so that it wouldn't kick. Guess what? Cracked wall.

Don't know if you are anywhere near Corryong Vic. There is a supplier there who will sell you kiln dried red gum. Looks great too.

Graham

I know what you mean. When you say "Kick" I assume you mean bend? I went out and checked it out today and the boards that were nice and flat when I cut them , are now bent along the length by about 3mm along the 900 mm length.
If I leave them for a few weeks and try to straighten them with the jointer is the same thing going to happen? I was hoping to make a jewelery box , but not if it keeps doing this. Maybe they are firewood after all.

3mm bend on a 900mm length is not bad. But when you have thicknessed the board to your jewellry box dimension it could be a good idea to lop off the lengths, plus a bit spare, and the gradual curve in the board might not be noticeable along the shorter length. To get a perfectly straight 900mm board you might have to do a lot of planing.

yes, what fencepost said.

My pieces are only 400-450 long and i cut them to about 15-18mm thick using the Triton and the SCM saw- but that's another story.
I leave then for a a few weeks and then resaw them. The difference if there is any over a short distance is negligible.
Your main problem is going to come when you seal them with whatever. Just about everything will darken the red gum and you will loose the beautiful colour.
If you are going to use joints , glue them with 2 part epoxy for strength and don't trust a butt joint or a simple mitre to hold.
You should be fine making jewelry boxes out of it.

Graham

Thanks for the replies. I have cut them to rough length and width , I will let them sit for a week or so then run them across the jointer then through the thicknesser and see what happens.
The plan is to dovetail the box , is this going to be strong enough?

Originally Posted by gjnairn

Now in WA there is a Timber I know as Marri but everyone over here calls it Red Gum for some reason. I that is something like what I know red gum is so why in WA do people know a pale wood with sap viens in as Red Gum.

Marri or Eucalyptus calophilla is commonly called Red Gum in WA because of the Red Sap it weeps out of cuts and breaks.

Originally Posted by Stevenp

The plan is to dovetail the box , is this going to be strong enough?

yes. remember to glue.

Did you have any holes that you need to fill? With the box i made i left the holes there rather than fill them with a clear resin.

Graham

Originally Posted by Carry Pine

Your main problem is going to come when you seal them with whatever. Just about everything will darken the red gum and you will loose the beautiful colour.

Graham

The Water based poly finishes are water clear and don't darken redgum very much do the natural timber colour is more or less maintained.
I use Cabots clear floor finish which is a nice hard to scratch finish